The fight in the House for a new Speaker has clearly hurt Republicans.
For all his faults, Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) was and remains an amazing fundraiser.
Since the infighting in the party and the election of Speaker Johnson, however, fundraising has fallen off dramatically for the fundraising arm of House Republicans.
We had stated that the infighting in the party would eventually take a toll, as House Republicans are coming off more like petulant children than legislators right now.
The fact they are not getting anything of note done is upsetting voters who expected the party to really make some headway.
Then, when they did pass legislation, it was mostly legislation to discipline members of Congress, not anything to benefit Americans.
Even with Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA) elected Speaker, the fighting continues, with there being dissent over how he passed the budget legislation.
A typical month for the GOP regarding House fundraising is about $10 million, give or take. This year, however, those numbers are down rather dramatically.
In September, the House raised about $9 million just before all the infighting started. In October, while Republicans were fighting over a new Speaker, the GOP only raised $5 million.
To put that into perspective, the GOP raised $10 million during the 2019 cycle for October and $9.8 million during the October 2021 cycle.
During that same cycle, the Democrats raised $8.1 million, which allowed them to outspend Republicans by almost 50% during the month. That is a huge deal due to the razor-thin majority and the fact Republicans need to hold the House and take back the Senate if they are to have any real change if the GOP wins back the White House next year.
This is a real problem for the GOP, as they have to be able to hold the House in 2024, at least. If they end up turning over control of Congress completely to Democrats, the only thing winning the White House enables them to do is veto Democrat legislation.
The lack of fundraising is already being noticed, with one New York House Republican stating:
“McCarthy was the LeBron James of fundraising and Mike Johnson really isn’t and so how is it that you can square this circle?”
Johnson has tried to address this by launching the Grow the Majority committee, which will serve as his primary fundraising arm while serving as Speaker.
He better get rolling and do it soon because Republicans have absolutely no room for error during this cycle.
